Uncanny Page #3

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Why do that

if the primary objective

is to win?

Maybe the primary objective

wasn't to win.

Then what was

the primary objective?

To teach you.

It's a flashier move,

and he did have a point to make.

Perhaps he chose

to make me look foolish.

Perhaps specifically

making me look foolish

was his primary objective.

I don't think

you should read into it.

It's a just a game.

No, it's a learning exercise.

Strategy is the means to the win

which is the end.

He abandoned a surefire win

in order to attempt

to humiliate me.

That doesn't fit within

the confines of programming.

People do things

for different reasons, Adam.

It's programming

but in a different sense.

Hey.

Sorry.

Why?

It was the way

you looked at my hand.

I thought, maybe, you didn't

like to be touched.

I don't have much of a frame

of reference

for being touched.

So, no apology is necessary.

You look busy.

How long have you been

standing there?

Just long enough

to watch you in action.

You know you don't really

have to dress up for us.

This is a workshop,

not a job interview.

Okay.

No, I didn't mean it like that.

I mean, you look great, really.

I just don't want you to get

your nice clothes all dirty.

Wear what makes you comfortable.

I see why Castle

invested in you.

What? This?

This is just

the technicians stuff.

It's nowhere near Adam's level.

His physiology recreates

the seven degrees of freedom

of a human arm.

This bucket of bolts

is just the test subject

for the software.

Anyone with a steady hand

can screw it together.

Not that impressive

as far as I'm concerned.

Now this,

this is what's impressive.

The algorithms,

the naturalistic coding,

that's what Castle invested in.

Most of my time spent here

is perfecting programs

like that one.

When I was at MIT,

I designed a robotic hand

that could crush a cue ball

into dust,

but hold a butterfly wing

without hurting it.

The mechanics don't matter.

What matters

is how sophisticated

the input sensors are.

The key for that hand

wasn't in its movement,

but the way it moved.

When Castle offered me

this workspace,

he said it was the movement

of that hand

that made him feel

there was true intelligence

behind it.

He gave me a rousing speech

I can't remember much of now,

except for the part where

he told me he would, quote,

"Fund my journey

through the uncanny valley."

End Quote.

- Masahiro Mori.

- The man himself.

Well, that was Castle's goal.

And once I heard that,

I was as good as his.

Most mech techs

end up building things

that are for commercial

or industrial purposes,

which is really a shame.

Robotics is about artistry.

I aspire to be

more like Vincent Van Gogh

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